Pith. sign in

Photometric variability of TW~Hya from seconds to years as seen from space and the ground in 2013-2017

1 Pith paper cite this work, alongside 37 external citations. Polarity classification is still indexing.

1 Pith paper citing it
37 external citations · Pith
abstract

This is the final photometric study of TW Hya based on new MOST satellite observations. During 2014 and 2017 the light curves showed stable 3.75 and 3.69 d quasi-periodic oscillations, respectively. Both values appear to be closely related with the stellar rotation period, as they might be created by changing visibility of a hot-spot formed near the magnetic pole directed towards the observer. These major light variations were superimposed on a chaotic, flaring-type activity caused by hot-spots resulting from unstable accretion - a situation reminiscent of that in 2011, when TW Hya showed signs of a moderately stable accretion state. In 2015 only drifting quasi-periods were observed, similar to those present in 2008-2009 data and typical for magnetised stars accreting in a strongly unstable regime. A rich set of multi-colour data was obtained during 2013-2017 with the primary aim to characterize the basic spectral properties of the mysterious occultations in TW Hya. Although several possible occultation-like events were identified, they are not as well defined as in the 2011 MOST data. The new ground-based and MOST data show a dozen previously unnoticed flares, as well as small-amplitude, 11 min - 3 hr brightness variations, associated with 'accretion bursts'. It is not excluded that the shortest 11-15 min variations could also be caused by thermal instability oscillations in an accretion shock.

fields

astro-ph.SR 1

years

2026 1

verdicts

ACCEPT 1

representative citing papers

citing papers explorer

Showing 1 of 1 citing paper.

  • Unstable magnetospheric accretion on the T Tauri star TW Hya astro-ph.SR · 2026-07-13 · accept · none · ref 142 · internal anchor

    TW Hya’s large-scale field is a ~0.83 kG tilted dipole that varies yearly; accretion is unstable (rmag/rcor ≈ 0.33–0.40) and no close-in planet is detected above ~0.3–1 Mjup.